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Episode: Holiday Myths/Viewers' Choice Original Air Date: December 22, 2004 Myths: Mini Myths (Snowman Melt, Silver Spoon/Champaigne, Quick Freeze Pee, Killer Icicle, Frozen Turkey Explosion, Fireplace Cooldown) with Clips from Viewer Favorites
This episode was different than others. For the Holidays, the Mythbusters decided to do a countdown of the viewer's top ten favorite myths of the first season. They also did Holiday "mini-myths" throughout the episode.
Holiday Myth #1 - Will a clothed snowman melt slower than a naked snowman. They built two snowmen from bags of crushed ice. Their test took place in San Francisco in 80 degree weather. They checked after a couple of hours, the clothed one was much less melted. At the end of the myth (5h 40m in total), the myth was confirmed - the dressed snowman melted a lot slower than unclothed. It does matter if you cloth your snowman or not.
Holiday Myth #2 - Does a silver spoon put in the neck of an open bottle of champagne keep it bubblier than any other method? The test subjects were one unopened bottle, one with a silver spoon, one open, one opened and cork replaced. They refrigerated them for 24 hours. They did a blind taste test of the four subjects and both rank them the same. They agree that the one that had the silver spoon least bubbliest, ironically.
Holiday Myth #3 - Can urine freeze before hitting the ground? They use fake urine wheed into a freezer of a temperature of -70 degrees. This myth was quickly disproved - no freezing. It does not happen, well, not in the US anyway.
Holiday Myth #4 - Can an icicle falling kill you? They made an icicle and dropped over stairwell down 15ft into slab of beef. They agreed that it looked to be deadly, confirming the myth. With the correct conditions, a falling icicle is dangerous.
Holiday Myth #5 - Will a frozen Turkey explode if dropped quickly in oil to deep fry it? They tried thawed for comparison but they got no explosion. They then dropped the frozen turkey. It made a mess of hot oil, but no explosion; it will only cause the liquid to spill over.
Holiday Myth #6 - Lighting a fire makes the rest of your house cooler - Putting thermometers over the house, they measures the temperature change after lighting a fire in the fireplace. The temperature at the other end of the house went down 3 degrees. Confirmed, it does.
#10 Favorite - CD shattering - After putting damaged and undamaged CD's in a regular CD player and a homemade super spinner, they agreed that it is highly, highly unlikely that a CD would shatter in a Computer CD player.
#9 Favorite - Chicken gun - After 3 different tests (the first two were inaccurate), ultimately a frozen will penetrate farther than thawed one.
#8 Favorite - Beat breath test. Adam and Jamie got drunk (with Police supervision) to try different methods of beating the breathalyzer. They try breath mints, an onion, pennies on the tongue, denture cream in the mouth, hyperventilating, and mouthwash. They were all busted.
#7 Favorite - Pop rocks and soda = exploded stomach? They get a pig stomach and fill it with diluted hydrochloric acid, pop rocks, and cola. There was no explosion of the pig stomach, but the consumer might be ill. To make the stomach explode, they used baking soda and diluted hydrochloric acid.
#6 Favorite - Lawn Chair Larry - They recreate the flight of Larry Walters. Using weather balloons, a lawn chair, sand bags and beer, Adam's flight was a success. Also, the myth of Larry's flight was confirmed.
#5 Favorite - Barrel of Bricks - On the first try to see if the barrel would fall apart, make a person (Buster) fly up, then down, and then the barrel pieces fall on Buster, they try with a complete barrel - They got no boom. Then they try a barrel with some bands removed - again, no boom. The third try was with a barrel with almost all bands removed and edge of a board in drop zone - the scenario worked perfectly.
#4 Favorite - Stinky car - They purchase a car and for two months of pigs rotting in a car, there was a terrible stench, and after a professional cleaning, it still smelled. But they somehow managed to sell it for $2000.
#3 Favorite - Escape from Alcatraz (Adam's favorite) - They recreated, as well as the could, the escape of the real escapees; they made a raft from raincoats and made paddles. After several hours, they made a successful trip from Alcatraz.
#2 Favorite - Rocket car (Jamie's Favorite) - They made three homemade rockets and put them on a car that Jamie rigged for remote control. After getting the car going, they remotely set off the rockets one by one. The car went fast; it had 3,000 horsepower for 12 seconds.
#1 Favorite - Tree cannon - They made a tree cannon and Jamie made a granite cannon ball. The first launch was a tennis ball. Then they tried the granite ball, but they lost track of the ball. For the finale, they put 5 pounds of gun powder in and corked it to make it explode. There wasn't much left of the cannon after that. A tree cannon can explode.
Happy Holiday wishes from the Mythbusters. |
Episode Descriptions 
